BioWare had an impossible task. Imagine trying to follow up one of the most beloved trilogies in gaming history, a series where players spent a hundred hours bonding with Garrus Vakarian and deciding the fate of entire species, only to pivot to a brand new galaxy. That was the setup for Mass Effect Andromeda. It didn't go well. If you were online in 2017, you remember the memes. The "my face is tired" girl. The weird crab-walk animations. The eyes that looked like they were staring into a microwave. It was a disaster of a launch that basically killed the franchise for several years.
But here’s the thing. Underneath those broken animations and the janky day-one code, there was a game that actually tried to do something different.
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Honestly, it’s kinda tragic. Most people wrote it off immediately, but if you look at how it plays today—especially with the patches—there is a sense of wonder and exploration that the original trilogy sometimes lacked. You aren't a legendary soldier like Commander Shepard. You're a Pathfinder. You’re basically a glorified scientist-scout looking for a home in a place that doesn't want you. That shift in tone changes everything about how the game feels.
What Really Happened with Mass Effect Andromeda?
The development of this game was a "perfect storm" of bad luck and mismanagement. According to a massive investigative report by Jason Schreier at Kotaku, the game spent years in a state of flux. They spent a huge amount of time trying to build procedurally generated planets—think No Man’s Sky—before realizing it just didn't work for a BioWare RPG. By the time they pivoted to handcrafted worlds, they only had about 18 months to actually build the game.
You can feel that crunch when you play. The Frostbite engine, which is great for Battlefield, was notoriously difficult to use for RPGs. BioWare's Montreal studio had to build basic RPG systems from scratch because the engine didn't have them.
Despite all that, the combat is the best the series has ever seen. Period. It's fast. It’s vertical. You have a jump jet that lets you reposition instantly, and the "Profile" system means you aren't locked into a single class. You can swap from a Cloaking Sniper to a Biotic God mid-fight. It makes the combat in Mass Effect 1 look like it’s moving through molasses.
The Problem With the Open World
If you’re coming from the tight, mission-to-mission structure of Mass Effect 2, the open world of Andromeda is going to be a shock. It’s bloated. There are way too many "go here, scan five things" quests that feel like chores. This was the era where every developer thought "bigger is better," but they forgot to fill the space with meaningful stuff.
Take Eos, the first desert planet. It's visually stunning, but half the time you're just driving the Nomad across empty dunes. The Nomad is actually fun to drive—way better than the Mako from the first game—but even a cool car can't fix boring objectives.
- The Remnant Sudoku: Who thought alien hacking should be a literal Sudoku puzzle? It gets old fast.
- The Crafting System: It’s incredibly deep, but the UI is a nightmare. You'll spend way too long in menus just trying to build a better shotgun.
- The Tone: It’s lighter. More "Guardians of the Galaxy" than "Starship Troopers." Some fans hated this, but it fits the theme of being a group of civilians lost in space.
The Characters: They Aren't Shepard's Crew (And That’s Okay)
People love to complain that the Andromeda crew isn't as good as the original trilogy's. Well, yeah. You had three games and a mountain of DLC to fall in love with Liara and Tali. In Mass Effect Andromeda, you have one game.
But look closer at someone like Drack. He’s a grumpy, old Krogan who has seen everything. He’s basically a space grandpa with a shotgun. Or Vetra, a Turian smuggler who actually feels like a real person with family burdens, not just a soldier. These characters are messy. They argue. They aren't professional soldiers; they’re outcasts.
The "Loyalty Missions" make a return here, and they are easily the best part of the writing. They feel like the BioWare of old. There’s a specific mission involving a movie night that is so genuinely charming it almost makes up for the 20 hours of scanning minerals you did earlier.
Is It Still Glitchy?
Short answer: mostly no.
If you play it on a modern PC or a Series X/PS5, the frame rate is stable and the worst facial glitches have been ironed out. It’s a handsome game. The lighting on planets like Havarl—the bioluminescent jungle—is genuinely breathtaking. You’ll still see the occasional T-pose or a weird clipping issue, but it’s no worse than your average Skyrim or Cyberpunk 2077 session.
The biggest tragedy is that we never got the Quarian Ark DLC. The game ends on a cliffhanger, and because the initial reception was so toxic, EA pulled the plug. We had to get the resolution in a novel called Mass Effect Andromeda: Annihilation by Catherynne M. Valente. It's a great book, but it should have been in the game.
Making the Most of a Playthrough in 2026
If you’re going to dive in now, you have to play it differently than other RPGs. If you try to 100% every planet, you will burn out. You’ll hate it. The game is designed to distract you with "fluff" content.
Focus on the Path. Stick to the main "Heleus Assignments" and the character-specific missions. If a quest tells you to go collect 10 data pads from random enemy camps, ignore it. It adds nothing to the story.
You should also lean into the "Combos" in combat. Prime an enemy with a Cryo Beam and detonate them with a Concussive Shot. The sound design when a biotic combo goes off is incredibly satisfying—a sharp, metallic crack that makes you feel powerful.
- Download the "Fix" Mods: If you're on PC, the "MEA Fixpack" is mandatory. It cleans up remaining bugs the developers missed.
- Toggle the Nomad Upgrades: Get the 6-wheel drive and boost upgrades early. It makes traversing the planets a breeze.
- Don't Rush Eos: The game forces you to leave and come back later when the radiation clears. Don't fight this. Go explore other things.
The Verdict on Mass Effect Andromeda
It’s a 7/10 game that was expected to be a 10/10. That's the core of the problem. If this had been a new IP from a different studio, people probably would have called it a "flawed but ambitious" sci-fi adventure. Because it carried the Mass Effect name, the flaws felt like a betrayal.
But there is a soul here. There’s a feeling of being a pioneer, of looking up at an alien sky and knowing you’re millions of light years from home. That loneliness, mixed with the hope of building something new, gives Andromeda a unique identity.
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With the next Mass Effect currently in development (and seemingly heading back to the Milky Way), Andromeda is likely to remain a strange side-step in gaming history. But it’s a side-step worth taking if you want more of that universe. It's cheaper than a sandwich during most sales, and for 40-50 hours of solid sci-fi action, you could do a lot worse.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check for Sales: Andromeda frequently drops to under $10 on Steam and Xbox. Don't pay full price; it’s almost always on sale.
- Prioritize Loyalty Missions: To get the "true" experience, focus on your crew's personal stories above the planet-viability quests.
- Mod Your Experience: If on PC, install "Shorter Landing and Departure Cinematics." It saves you literally hours of watching the same ship animations over a full playthrough.
- Read the Tie-ins: If the ending leaves you wanting more, grab the Annihilation novel to find out what happened to the missing species.
The game isn't the disaster people claimed it was in 2017. It's a sprawling, messy, beautiful, and occasionally frustrating space opera that deserves a second look now that the dust has settled.